Cristiano Ronaldo holds his face after a tackle on him by Steven Taylor. Photograph: John Giles/PA

Cristiano Ronaldo was involved in a confrontation with Newcastle's Steven Taylor in the players' tunnel at half-time of Manchester United's 2-1 victory at St James' Park on Wednesday night, calling the Newcastle defender 'a rubbish footballer' and having to be calmed down by his captain, Rio Ferdinand, and the referee, Steve Bennett.

Taylor had been booked for a rash challenge on Ronaldo before half-time and the pair exchanged angry words as they made their way to their dressing rooms. Ronaldo reportedly started the exchange by calling Taylor a rubbish footballer, to which the Newcastle defender responded by allegedly saying that, at least, "he wasn't ugly".

Ronaldo repeated the claim about Taylor being a poor footballer and the exchange ended with the defender apparently saying, "I know, but you are still ugly" before Ferdinand and Bennett intervened.

Newcastle's stand-in manager, Chris Hughton, defended his player after the game. "I've had the opportunity to see it again and Steven was a bit headstrong in his endeavour to pull Ronaldo back, but he caught him on the shoulder and neck, that's all it was," he said.

The FA are to wait on Bennett's report before it decides if it will take any action regardong the incident in the tunnel. However it cannot take any further action against Taylor for the tackle if it wished to, as he has already been booked for the offence.

Peter Lovenkrands had given Newcastle an early lead after a rare mistake by Edwin van der Sar but Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov hit back to secure yet another win for United. They are now seven points clear of Chelsea and Liverpool with a game in hand.